Thursday, 23 October 2008

I finish on the 31st of this month. I'm getting excited, but also nervous about how to spend my days. But I'm fretting no longer as I have decided to do a good thing for charity and a good thing for myself at the same time. Win-win are the best situations ever. I'm going to walk around the Isle of Wight, on the Coastal Path, solo (although with a rucksack and camera to keep me company) for 6 days. I'm trying to raise some money for Cancer Research in the process. You can sponsor me here.

I'm really looking forward to it. It should be challenging enough, especially if the weather gets bad, and will be a good opportunity to escape for a while. Plus I'm really chuffed that people have been donating so generously. It certainly makes me feel that people aren't all bad.

I realise I have been somewhat quiet recently, which is perhaps foolish given the nature of what this blog is supposed to be about. But fret not, I have not given up - just been busy to be honest.

I went to Dublin for a few days with the girlfriend, to visit her family. I've never been to Dublin before but from what little I saw of it it seems a nice place. I was expecting a fairly shambolic, extended crawl through the dark and dusty history of Irish drinking establishments but events in the family overtook the situation. In the end I was welcomed at one of the largest family meals I've ever been party to and quite different for someone who grew up with only one sibling.

It really did make me think about things, about the choices I've been making up until now, and the choices I'm still able to make. Good friends and family make for a good life. Jobs, money, possessions - these are merely distractions and temptations put before us to veer us off course from attaining the important things. We'd do well to remember this now and again and realise how lucky we are that we still have time to make the right choices.

So then I spent a few days in Geneva, tying up a few loose ends for work. I've always said I like Geneva, the place, the food, the people. If my circumstances were a bit different I would have taken the job there. But again, I don't think that would be a step in the right direction for what I want out of life.

So, at the moment I'm only applying for jobs I actually like the sound of. There are a lot of jobs out there, but it seems very few I'm going to apply for. I didn't get an interview for the health charity, which is a shame because it sounded interesting, but this is possibly because I didn't put enough effort into the application. Of the 10 positions I applied for when I got scared a couple of weeks ago (most being through agencies) I heard back about 1, but then this went cold, and I turned down 1 as I would have had to start immediately. If there's anything I'm sure of right now it's that I need at least a little break from employment.